The Croatian Journalists Association (HND) on Monday warned that the head of the HRT public broadcaster's "Business operation" unit, Mislav Stipic, has filed a private slander lawsuit against two HND vice-presidents, thus continuing a string of lawsuits against reporters and HND leaders.

Stipic has sued HND vice-presidents Branko Mijic and Goran Gazdek over a statement published on 12 March under the title “Bacic’s taking to court leading people of the HND and Croatian Trade Union new attack on media freedoms”, the HND said in a statement.

The latest case continues the shameful string of lawsuits against reporters that have made Croatia recognisable in the EU as a country where power-wielders use lawsuits to square accounts with reporters and media, thus threatening journalistic and media freedoms, the HND says, noting that Croatia has been at the bottom of EU rankings with regard to respect for media freedoms.

HND president Hrvoje Zovko said this was yet another attack on the HND by Stipic but the HND would continue speaking and warning about the situation at the HRT as well as his role in it.

Stipic resented allegations in the said statement that former HRT director Kazimir Bacic, dismissed over corruption charges, targeted anyone who had dared speak up publicly about serious accusations of sexual harassment and mobbing, made against Stipic by an HRT employee and corroborated by two other employees, which Bacic tried to cover up, the HND said.